Negative reports send stocks tumbling

NEW YORK — Stocks fell to their lowest level in four months Friday after the government said hiring remains weak and another European country warned its economy was in trouble.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 323 points to close below 10,000. It was the lowest finish since February and the third-worst slide of the year.

Major indexes all lost more than 3 percent. The drop pushed the market back into "correction" mode, meaning a decline of at least 10 percent from a recent high.

Interest rates slid after traders shoveled money into the safety of Treasurys and the dollar.

Retailers were among the hardest-hit stocks after investors bet that a weak job market would discourage consumers from spending. Macy's fell 6.5 percent. Financial stocks also fell sharply on concerns that borrowers would continue having problems paying their bills. Banks were hurt by more worries about their exposure to Europe's debt crisis. American Express lost 5.3 percent.

The government's May jobs report came as an unpleasant surprise for investors who had grown a little more upbeat about the domestic economy the past few days. The Labor Department said private employers hired just 41,000 workers in May, down dramatically from 218,000 in April and the lowest number since January. The news made it clear that the economic recovery isn't yet picking up the momentum that investors have been looking for.

The government said 431,000 jobs overall were created last month, but most of those them, 411,000, came from government hiring of temporary census workers. The overall number also fell short of expectations. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast employers would add 513,000 jobs.

"People are looking for one turning point," Daniel Penrod, senior industry analyst for the California Credit Union League, said of the monthly jobs report. "That's not realistic. This growth will be much slower and more gradual than in the past."

The unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent from 9.9 percent in April. That was slightly better than the 9.8 percent unemployment rate economists had forecast.

The jobs report was the latest during the week to signal that the economy isn't as robust as hoped.

"It's almost as if the worst fears of the market were realized, at least in this one report," said Richard Sparks, senior equities analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.